Danielle Hanson
Danielle Hanson
My mission is to create and facilitate wonder
 
 

“The poems repeatedly find that new ground, and as readers we hold on just as firmly as the speaker every time.” - Alberto rios

Poet

 
 
 
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instagram and twitter: daniellejhanson, and check out instagram @the_egerstedt_twins

Danielle Hanson’s mission in her work is to create and facilitate wonder.

Danielle Hanson is the inaugural Poet Laureate for Costa Mesa, California, and Writer-in-Residence at the University of California, Irvine. She is author of The Night Is What It Eats (forthcoming, Elixir Press Prize), Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press Poetry Prize), and Ambushing Water (Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year), and editor of the poetry anthology Objects in This Mirror (Press 53) and two books of literary criticism. Her poetry was the basis for a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. She is Marketing Director for Sundress Publications, and serves on their Editorial Board and as Managing Editor for their imprint Doubleback Books. Previously, she has been Poet-in-Residence at Arts Beacon in Atlanta, where she curated a poet/artist collaboration show Alloy. She has also served as Writer-in-Residence for Georgia Writers, Poetry Editor for Doubleback Books, Poetry Editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review, and taught poetry workshops at high schools and public libraries. Her work has appeared in over 100 journals, including Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Iodine Poetry Journal, Rosebud, Willow Springs, Roanoke Review, Poet Lore, Asheville Poetry Review, and Blackbird. She is a 2021 recipient of a Readings & Workshops Grant from Poets & Writers.

photo credits: Kelley klein, Erin Brauer, and Colin Potts

 
 
 

"
Danielle Hanson’s poems reside in shadows and daydreams, but they are not whimsy. They are weighted by emotion. Inside an empty mailbox there is a longing, a loneliness, and Hanson allows that emptiness to evolve into “a small species of bird/with the call of late night radio.” I swear, I have heard that bird call before. I really love these poems.

/  Judge’s Statement, georgia author of the year  /

 
 

Experience

Danielle enjoys sharing poetry live and online. She has collaborated with existing poetry distribution venues, and innovated her own to reach new audiences. Some of her work includes:

Writer-in-Residence, UC Irvine

Inaugural Poet Laureate, Costa Mesa, California

Marketing Director, Sundress Press

Editorial Board, Sundress Press

Editor of Guest Editor Poetry Series, Codhill Press

Poet-in-Residence, Arts Beacon, Atlanta, GA

Curator of Alloy, a pairing of poets, artists, and musicians, gallery exhibition, Arts Beacon, Atlanta, GA

Writer-in-Residence, Georgia Writers Association

Author of Haunting the Wrong House, a poetry puppet show at Center for Puppetry Arts

Creator of Poetry-oke, performed with Little 5 Arts Alive and the Atlanta-Fulton County Library

Managing Editor/Poetry Editor, Doubleback Books

Manuscript Screener, AWP’s Donald Hall Prize

Mentor, AWP Writer to Writer Mentorship Program

Interviews and Articles

Costa Mesa names UC Irvine poetry instructor Danielle Hanson its first poet laureate, April 3, 2025

ArtsATL: In Our Own Words, January 28, 2021

Georgia Writers Association, Instagram Q&A, December 11, 2020

Plume: A Writer’s Companion, Podcast with Danielle Hanson, October 5, 2020

Plume: A Writer’s Companion, Interview with Danielle Hanson, September 24, 2020

Poets & Writers: Business Management Tools to Improve Your Writing Life (September/October 2018)

Poets in Pajamas, online, originally filmed September 16, 2018 (watch here)

 
 
 

"
Danielle Hanson’s new book Ambushing Water has a deliberate clarity that vibrates through her music and imagery like a crystal glass tapped gently with the bright butter knife. Danielle has always written the most original, provocative yet inevitable love poems. She is simply brilliant.

/  Norman dubie  /